The NDSU Wind Symphony is set to perform “A Czech Festival” concert, featuring guest artist conductor Col. Václav Blahunek from the Prague Castle Guard and Czech Symphonic Police Band. The concert is scheduled Sunday, Dec. 3, at 2 p.m. at NDSU Festival Concert Hall. It will showcase works by Czech composers.

Blahunek has been the conductor of the Prague Castle Guard and Czech Police Symphonic Band since 1999, and was appointed its director and chief conductor in 2009. Born in Olomouc, Czech Republic, he studied clarinet and conducting at the Prague Academy, where his teachers included Radomil Eliska and Frantisek Vajnar on clarinet, and the renowned Czech conductor Jiri Belohlavek and Nicolas Parquet in conducting. He has conducted bands and orchestras internationally, including the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic of Zlin and the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra of Japan. He has appeared as guest conductor at the Prague State Opera and the Usti nad Labem Theatre. In 2010, he finished his doctoral studies at the Prague Academy, focusing on the theory of interpretation, with special emphasis on conducting the symphonic repertoire for wind orchestras.

Under the direction of Warren Olfert, The NDSU Wind Symphony is part of a tradition of band excellence at NDSU that spans more than 100 years. The Wind Symphony has worked with composers such as David Maslanka and Dana Wilson and performed with renowned soloist Eugene Rousseau and Los Angeles Philharmonic principal trumpet Thomas Hooten.

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